Ending the year

Well today is going to be a loooooooooong 9 hour shift. I am so ready for my vacation! I'm going to be on vacation for almost 2 weeks -- its 10 days altogether. I am so ready to get my house back, spend some time with the kids, and decorate my living room. I'm ready to see Tamara again (whom I haven't hung out with in a while because we're both so busy) and I'm ready to just kick back and chill some.

When I get home tonight, I have to pack for our trip to Florida. Starting at 5:30 or 6:00 tomorrow morning, we'll be making the 8 hour haul to FL to spend new years with Brent's family. We do this every year and I am so excited to do it again!


This is our family last year at New Years. How little the children look!!

The kids are getting soooo big!!




Adorable, aren't they? And so grown up and big!


I snapped this of Brent and Judah last night -- they were so precious I couldn't help myself :-)


OMG guys! I've been blogging for over a year and I JUST REALIZED that you can click the "compose" tab in the top right corner of yor posting box and SEE THE PICS and the text all together!! I've been editing the HTML for all this time, clicking "preview" to see what order my pics uploaded in! I feel so silly! And somehow, writing in this tab feels wrong... Idk what to say over here. Ok I'm clicking back to HTML (lol)

Well, I have alot to do tonight. We have to locate the gift we have for Kenneth. We picked out something AWESOME for him but Brent hasn't looked for it (he knows where it is, he just hasn't physically laid hands on it, you know?). And I need to wrap that and the stepping stone we are making for Nana's garden for Judah. A few years ago - right before we got pregnant with Raziel - all the grandchildren made a stepping stone for Nana's garden. Brent and I made one together, it had a ladybug and a spider on it. Alina "made" one as well - it was pink and sparkly and had her handprint and name on it. We also made one with Raziel the following year, and this year we need to make one for Juju. Its kinda fun to paint them all detailed and stuff, but I'm just going to masking-tape and spray-paint this sucker and get it done. I'm going to trace Juju's hand onto paper, cut it out, and lay it on the stone so we get the absence of paint for his handprint. I thought that was creative. I finally got all the shopping done for the harder relatives a week or two ago. And all of that has been wrapped for a while now, in a box where Raziel can't open it ahead of time :-)

But tonight, I have alot of work to do. I need to locate (wash and dry if needed) nice clothing for our trip, pack all clothes and toiletries as well as presents and toys and food for the 8 hour (per way) car trip we're taking. I also need to vacuum out the car and move the stroller and the other odds and ends out of the car to make as much room as possible for the items we will need to bring back home. I was hoping our station wagon would be ready to go... let me call that guy.... yeah, headgasket... itll be a few weeks... *sigh* and several hundred dollars. OK, its not so bad though. We've replaced (counting this) every expensive thing in this car so we should be okay for a while. LOL. Its important to us to have a big car, and it'll be cheaper to have this rebuilt then to go buy one.

Anyway. I haven't even kind of started on all that I need to do for this trip. I've been working late nights (thanks holiday extended hours) and sleeping as much as possible to try and alleviate the stress of said late nights. I haven't really got food in the house, I don't know where the floor of my bedroom has dissapeered to, and my children's room and playroom has become a lost cause. I need to get a few big boxes of their toys out to the shed for storage to pull out later, but I haven't had time/energy/motivation to do that either.

*sigh* I so need this vacation. And I feel a little bad for taking this big long vacation and not traveling to see my family in Charleston, but #1) I can't afford it and #2) I need time for my own little mini-family and my home. There's all sorts of things I haven't had time to do and I'm ready to get on that list and get em done!

Christmas Festivities

Christmas morning, the kids woke up before it was light out, but they didn't think it was christmas yet because the sun wasn't up therefore it wasn't Christmas yet (whoohoo! lets hope that trend stays for a few years). Brent went in there with the kids and watched some TV with them for an hour or so and then he told Alina that it was Christmas and she should go wake me up. She told him it wasn't Christmas because it was still dark and he actually had to talk her into waking me! LOL

Anyways, when we finally got up and moved into the living room and we settled in.

First we opened stockings. Raziel wouldn't hold still long enough to take a good picture, but this is him showing us his candy.



Raziel and Alina LOVE this little power wheels jeep. Raziel sits in the jeep and rolls his little cars around in the seat of it.


This is mid-morning, we had to stop and pick up some of the wreckage before we could get through the other half (yes, I said half!) of the presents. (Sorry its blurry)


This is Alina and Raziel playing on their powerwheel and trike, while Brent hovers to make sure no one hits anyone else's car. -- they thought it would be fun to play bumper cars :-)

Judah hung out in his little thingy and was happy playing with toys and eating cherrios.



Then we went over to Nene's and opened presents with the in-laws. I got a few cute pics of Raziel with Nene but not anything good of the other two.




Altogether we had a very nice Christmas. Brent did very well for me this year - How I met your Mother (season 1), Blue Ray copies of a few good movies, a Twiglight ornament, a heated blanket (WHOOHOOO!), a new body pillow, the host (by stephanie myer), Evermore (another of that kind of book, its REALLY good), something else (can't remember right now) and a Custom version of loveopoly. That last one was very sweet because I made him a copy of Monopoly when we were still dating - called Buetifulopoly -- custom locations, customized board, etc. He basically did the same sort of thing. Instead of "go to jail" its "go to therapy" (LOL). Theres wedding photos of us on the board, all of the various locations are special to us as a couple. It made me cry. I was so happy :-)

Its such a happy happy day

White Christmas

I have a TON of pictures so I'm gonna break it up into snow pics and another blog for Christmas. Christmas morning we woke up and we were enjoying the morning opening presents and so on, Brent and Alina go into her bedroom to move some toys and they look out the window- and its snowing!! We got a total of 5 inches - it snowed ALL DAY. Enough snow that we ran around and played, then went over to Nene's and when we came back our footprints were covered up! It was AWESOME. That's the first time I've had a White Christmas, also the kids' first and Brent's first! News people said it was the first white Christmas we'd had in 40 years here.

Brent and I were so happy, it was the best day ever.



The kids and Brent and Jessie were all walking around making footprints. (Yes, she's wearing shorts, leggings, a robe and slippers.) It was the best temperature for snow -- it stayed right at freezing all day so it didn't melt, but there wasn't a wind chill or anything so it was actually really nice to stay outside and play in it.


Judah loved the snow - he thought it was awesome. I remember it snowed once when Alina was a baby, and another time when Raziel was a baby... maybe its because Judah is older than they were or maybe he's just tougher because he's chubbier (lol) idk, but he thought it was great. He was angry when we tried to leave him inside. He wanted to be out there with us too.


This is Brent throwing a snowball at me. We had a bunch of snowball fights, we had a blast!



This is Judah looking out the window, laughing at Brent pelting the door with snowballs


This is Alina


And this is Raziel

Aren't they so cute bundled up?

We still have a ton of snow today


I thought this was really cool -- the house is warm so the underside of the snow melts and starts to drip, but then it re-freezes as it moves away from the house and voila -- icecicles.


I had to take a picture of this -- anytime I see pictures of snow, its piled up on some kind of evergreen bush or tree. So when we got enough snow for it to pile up on my bush, I thought it was AWESOME and had to take a photo to share.



Well, I enjoyed this snow so much that I can't describe it all in one post, but that was my best shot at it.

Christmas Eve

Merry Christmas Eve!!

When I was a kid I would wish you a Merry Christmas eve's eve's eve (and so on) all the way up to like a week before Christmas. I was always SO thrilled to say Merry Christmas Eve when today finally got here.

The last few years I have been only relatively excited in light of Christmas. idk, its just not the same for adults. This year, with the HUGE pile under the kids' tree and several excitingly shaped boxes under our tree (including one big one for me that doesn't fit under the tree.... a down comfoter perhaps?) I am very very very excited!

Alina is beyond excited. Brent told her yesterday (teasing) that he thought she had too many presents and so he should take some back. Poor little thing started picking up presents and saying "no daddy!" She was trying to save all her presents -- I wish I had seen it. Brent laughed for ages, and Alina (once she realised he was kidding) had a good laugh too.

She got a little haircut last night - its almost a bob. There will be pictures up soon whenever I get stuff up for Christmas morning. It curves so nicely around her face, but I layered it a bit and it is a bit longer in the back so we can still put it up if we need to. Raz got a trim too -- he giggled and kept scrunching his neck up so its a bit rough around his ears but it looks good. I should've trimmed Judah's too around the ears but didnt get to it before I needed to lay them down for bedtime.

We were REALLY busy at work for a while -- I started this blog at 10 am and now (4:15pm) is when I'm finishing it. I sold 7 phones and Bob sold one and then its 4 and we don't even have bill payers or repairs. Its nice to be slow like this so we can get outta here and go home to celebrate Christmas.

Brent and I are having Christmas tonight. He asked if I wanted to wait till 12:01am and I said no -- I want to sleep tonight so when the kids get up at 5am and start screaming about the power wheels in the living room, I can get up too. He said that was probably true so we opted to do our Christmas immediately after bedtime (around 7pm).

Well its 4:30 already and I gotta get the store closed down before 5 so ttyl guys! Merry Christmas!!!

I'm dreeeaaaaming of a whiiiiiiiite Christmas

juuuuust like the one's I never knew!!!!! Where the churchbells are ringing and children singing and no one has ever seeen snooooooooooow.

Well, 2 days left til Christmas. I am practically beating Brent off from the presents with a stick - he's been saying its Christmas Eve since yesterday (lol) because he wants to open more presents. I am excited too, but I really enjoy sitting down and opening them all at once on Christmas and just loving it.

Lisa came over last night with yet ANOTHER load of toys... this load included a play yard (not a playpen, a little fenced in thingy that you set on the floor...), a dora jeep
and a john deer tractor thingy that looks alot like this;


That in addition to baby doll high chair and carseats, 2 bags of stuffed animals, 3 toy boxes full of random stuff, etc etc etc etc etc

I thought I was done wrapping. HAH.

Mommy is going shopping for some BIG toy bins that seal up real well and a few days after Christmas, I'm taking a bunch of the toys they aren't as excited about and putting them back for once they break a bunch of the new ones they got. (it's inevitable, may as well plan for it)

Theres several really cute little dump trucks for Raz, theres a few play seat things for Judah, theres gobs of baby doll stuff for Alina.... although I anticipate the biggest things brought last night will be the hits of the day - power wheels? Are you kidding? Of course she's gonna be excited!!!!!

So I'm pretty glad Brent has to work tonight because he hates wrapping presents and I LOVE LOVE LOVE doing it, so I can do it while he's working tonight and tomorrow night.

Looks like I'll have to take another picture of my living room when I'm all done wrapping because I'm pretty sure I WONT have any more living room left!

3 days til Christmas

Today has been busy at work. Today I am sleepy, laid back, and ready for my vacation (December 31st to January 10th). Today, I am ready to be done with all the silly little needs of the silly little people who come in today for phone issues instead of spending time with their families. I just want to be at home with mine.

This morning, I was a tad late to work - but it was nice. I laid in bed nursing and snuggling with Judah, then got up and dressed Alina and Raziel, spending our ritualistic 10 minutes hidden in the hall bathroom with the heater going. I had started this little routine a few weeks ago and really am enjoying it. I lock Alina and Raziel in the little bathroom with me, and we all get dressed and brush our teeth together, brush hair, etc. Its really pretty nice because first thing like that they are both in a good mood, tickled pink to be spending quality time with their mommy.

This week (and month as a whole) there are ALOT of my friends that are having babies. Jennifer (Miolen) is in labor right now with Colin. According to FB she was at 5cm about an hour ago. Jennifer (Birtwistle) is having Caleb via c-section tomorrow (he's breech). Tosha is due any day now, Connie is at 36 weeks, Helen Joy is due soon, Katie Beth in a few weeks, Veronica any day now----- you get the idea. Anyway, I think this is the first time I have been happy that I'm not having one right now too. I am so content with my little Juju and Alina and Razzy. I am so glad to have my kids at their 3 diverse stages and I just am happy.

Judah is in one of my favorite stages. (Funny you have to say "one of my favorite" when you have multiple kids lol) He's snuggly. He wants his mommy (ALWAYS). He is in the nursing stage that he nurses for comfort and to be close to mommy (not just for nutrition.) He is scooching and eats things with his hands. He sits up and loves playing with toys. The only frusterating thing is when I have to get things done, he wants to stay with me and HE'S HEAVY!

Raziel is also precious; He is starting to talk more persistently, though you have to listen closely for it. Idk if he's just still learning to talk or if he's gonna have a cute little accent and lisp, but he talks none-the-less. Things like "because I said so" and "good job" and "careful buddy." Things we say to him all the time. He's becoming a better share-er. He is becoming obediant - he does what he's told. "Raziel, give Alina that toy back." He does it. He is rough and tumble. He loves food. He loves milk. He loves any toy his sister has. He is excited about Christmas -- he is starting to realize what's going on with this big tree and all the presents underneath it. He wants to be JUST LIKE Alina. As soon as she's done with something - like her new bike for instance - he's on it, trying to do what she did. Its adorable.

Alina is getting soooo big. She's talking coherently, in full structured sentances. She carries on conversations. She is so smart too! She schemes -- for instance "Daddy, Razy climbed over the baby gate, so he doesn't get candy, right?" "Yes honey." "Daddy, can we open a little present?" "sure." (its candy) "Daddy, Razy can't have any so I don't have to share, right?" LOL She is such a mommy too. She tells me if they hurt themselves, she wants to help me make dinner, she wants to drink coffee (no, she's not allowed.) and she says she's big enough now to do (practically everything) because she's 4.

Well. I guess I just wanted to say I love my kids.

And I can't wait for Christmas with them. Its gonna rock. This year will be a little different than normal. We usually have Christmas Eve with Steve and Becca and Jessie but this year we're waiting til the 28th so we can have it with Clint (Brent's older brother). And, since Christmas is SO big for the kids this year, Brent and I are having our couply christmas on Christmas Eve. So this year, we are having Christmas on Christmas Eve for me and Brent, then Christmas Morning with the kids. Once they're all finished, we head across the street as usual to Nene's to have Christmas with Pam and the girls. The 28th we will have Christmas at my house with Clint and Steve and the girls (again), and then the 31st we'll head to Florida to have Christmas with Nana and Poppa Huggins and all the extended relatives on Pam's side. We stay there usually just 2 days but we might stay a 3rd day this year. We will see.

I'm excited. Very very excited.

Alina's Party

So I have pictures from Alina's party. She was so excited about her little bike :-)

Isn't it adorable? This is the little $29 one that I got on Black Friday at Walmart.

Judah got a hold of a pig-in-a-blanket. He liked it alot - he didn't like it when I took the hotdog part away. He was doing fine with it but hot dogs are a top choking hazard and it made me nervous.

She got a few cute little presents. This one is a monkey that has velcro on his hands.

She also recieved a little outfit, tinkerbell pajamas, some socks, a dora sippy cup and a dora blanket and doll. Thanks nene and paw!!

Raziel LOVED the cake we had. So did Juju. Alina wasn't so interested because she wanted to open presents.




These photos are from Christmas cookie decorating on Thursday. Raziel was given his own plate of icing after dipping that brush in the icing paint and licking and going back for more. It was adorable :-).



And here are the promised photos of the Christmas trees...
This is our tree...

and this is the kids tree... insane, isn't it. Merry Christmas to them!! If you've ever been in my living room, please note, I had to lean against the wall on the other side of the room to get all the presents! This shows that tree is taking up HALF OF MY LIVING ROOM!!! I know!! insane!! Its funny, I love my kids but I'm so glad they were adopted this year, they are going to have SUCH a big Christmas! Its gonna be sooo fun! Alina and Raziel are both REALLY excited -- Raz has finally figured out that all that wrapping paper is hiding toys and other cool stuff, and he is gonna be adorable, I'm sure! I can't wait!